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V 







A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 



TO 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 



A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 



FROM 



The Literary Society of Washington 



TO ITS LATE PRESIDENT 



JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 



Proceedings of a meeting of the Society held 

November 19 1881 







WASHINGTON 
1882 



PROCEEDINGS. 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 
1 Literary Society held on Monday, November 7, 
[881, the death of James Abram Garfield, President 
of the Society, was announced by the Vice-President. 

It was unanimously resolved by the Committee to 
hold a special meeting of the Society in memory of 
its late President on the evening of November 19, the 
fiftieth anniversary of his birth. 

On the appointed evening the Society assembled 
at the residence of its Vice-President, Dr. Gallaudet, 
on Kendall Green. There were also present a num- 
ber of invited guests, including prominent represent- 
atives of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial 
Departments of the Government. 



At nine o'clock the meeting was called to order, and 
the exercises were opened with the following addre 
by the Vice-President : 



Address of Vice-President Gallaudi 

" How pure at heart, how sound at head ; 
With what divine affection bold, 
Should be the man whose thought would h 
An hour's communion with the dead.'' 

Felloiv members of the Literary Society. 

I need not tell you that we arc assembled foi "an 
hour's communion" witli one whom we delighted t<> 
honor while he was yet among us. 

That we have, towards him who is gone, that purity 
at heart, that soundness at head, that boldness ol 
divine affection which the poet demands of those who 
would hold such communion, I believe. 

We are here as loving heirs entering upon the 
possession of a precious herita. 

Our friend is no longer ours "to have or t<> hold,'* 
but he is still ours "to remember;" and it is for us to 
enjoy, through the years that remain, the rich legacy 
he has left us in the record of a life, all the aims of 
which challenge our highest admiration. 

Though we cannot have, hereafter, his presence in 
our meetings as a fountain ever flowing with refresh- 
ment to mind and heart, the memory of his true 



eloquence will linger, and in imagination we shall 
often see and hear him, as on those occasions 

" When forth 
He sent from his full lungs his mighty voice, 
And words came like a fall of winter snow." 

With the public life of our late President, the mem- 
bers of the Literary Society, as such, have little con- 
cern. 

It will be for others to tell of his work as a teacher, 
to recount his deeds in arms, to describe his career as 
a legislator, and to record the events of his brief term 
as Chief Magistrate of the Nation. 

Our privilege is to fill a page in his history which 
may show him to have been a man of letters: a student 
of books as well as of men, a promoter of the fine arts, 
as well as the arts of war and of government. 

Before entering upon a consideration of the char- 
acter of our late President from these points of view, 
it will not, I trust, be thought out of place to present, 
briefly, the story of his connection with our Society. 
This I have been requested to prepare, and I beg 
leave to place it, as my humble offering, on the shrine 
before which we now stand with reverent heads and 
loving hearts. 

General Garfield's membership in our Society 
covered a period of five years and seven months. The 
day of the mouth on which he entered our ranks was 
the same as that which marks the days of his birth and 



death. He was announced as a member at Mrs. Ad- 
miral Dahlgren's, on the 19th of February, 1876, at the 
same time with General Albert J. Myer, Mr. Char';. 
Nordhoff, and Miss Annie W. Story. 

The literary exercises on that occasion consisted 
a paper on the Life, Character, and Art Work of the 
late Horatio Stone, by Miss E. B. Johnston, an essay on 
the Indian Character and Characteristics, by Dr. 
Elliott Cones, a dissertation on An and Art Techni< 
by Mr. Theodor Kaufmann, and a lecture upon Mole- 
cules and the Molecular Theory, by Prof. Wm. 
Harkness. 

The pressure of General Garfield's public duties did 
not allow him to attend all the meetings of the Society, 
and during the winter of [8; 1 as able t<> be 

present so rarely that a note was sent him by the 
Secretary, Mrs. Long, calling his attention to Arti* 
XII of the Constitution, relating to the forfeiture <>l 
membership by unexplained absent om three con- 

secutive meetings, and inquiring if he desired to hold 
his place as a member. The following repl\ was re- 
ceived : 

House of Representativi 

February 8. 

Dear Mrs. Long : 

Your note of the nth inst. came duly to hand. I 
greatly regret that overwork has kept me from the 
meetings of the Society. I have earnestly desired 



to attend them, but I am unwilling to be an ob- 
stacle to its progress, and unless I can give it more 
attention in the future, I think the Society had better 
drop me from its rolls. Please inform me when and 
where the next meeting will be held, and, if possible, 
I will be there either for apology or resignation. 

Very truly, 

J. A. GARFIELD. 
Mrs. R. Cary Long, 

1530 I street. 

At the next meeting, which was held at Dr. N. S. 
Lincoln's a week later, General Garfield was present 
and made some interesting comments on a paper by 
Mr. Peter Baumgras, concerning the habits of the 
aeronaut spider ; and thereafter his presence at meet- 
ings was sufficiently frequent to secure him an im- 
munity from further discipline. 

General Garfield is recorded as having spoken at 
eleven meetings : and he was present on many occa- 
sions when he took no part in the discussions. Three 
times the Society met at his house, and during the 
first year of his presidency, when, owing to some ad- 
verse circumstances the successful continuance of 
the Society was a matter of no little uncertainty, he 
showed his interest in its welfare by presiding at six 
o( the meetings. 

The first occasion on which General Garfield's voice 
was heard in the formal exercises of the Society was 



8 

at Judge S. W. Johnston's, on the evening of April 29, 
1876, when he read some extracts from Byron's 
"Waterloo," the present speaker rendering them in 
the language of signs at the same time. 

On the 13th of May following, General Garfield 
entertained the Society at his residence The ques- 
tion discussed at this meeting \\ 'Who were the 
five chief promoters of American independent 
The subject was debated by Mrs. Long, Messrs. 
Garfield, Chief-Justice Drake, J. Q. Howard, and 
Dr. C. C. Cox. 

On the evening of Washington's birthday, in the 
year 1879, one of the most interesting meetings of the 
Society was held at the residence of Mrs. Admiral 
Dahlgren. On this occasion the principal feature was 
an address by General Garfield on G< 1 \A hir 
ton, in which the speaker confined himself chiefly to 
consideration of the wonderful character <>t the revolu- 
tionary career of the Father of his Country, taken in 
connection with the preceding circumstances ol his 
life. 

Four weeks later, on the 226. of March, the Society 
met for the second time at General Garfield's. The 
literary entertainment for the evening was furnished 
by Dr. C. C. Cox, who read an article on the Latin 
hymns of the church, giving original translations of 
several. 

General Garfield commented on this paper in a most 



discriminating manner, showing his lively and appre- 
ciative interest in the classics. 

It was on the 16th of December, 1879, at a meeting 
of the Executive Committee, held at Mrs. F. W. 
Lander's, that General Garfield was elected President 
of the Society. 

The Committee consisted of Mrs. Lander, Miss E. B. 
Johnston, Dr. J. M. Toner, Dr. C. W. Hoffman, and 
Col. I. Edwards Clarke, all of whom were present at 
the meeting. 

On being informed of his election by one of the 
lady members of the Committee, General Garfield ex- 
pressed doubt as to the propriety of his accepting the 
office, for he feared that his many engagements would 
prevent his fulfilling properly the duties of the posi- 
tion. But on being assured that his acceptance of the 
presidency was a matter of great moment to the 
Society at that particular juncture, he consented to 
serve, and promised to do all in his power to advance 
the Society's interests. Upon which the lady member 
of the committee, who was communicating with him, 
laughingly remarked : " Well, General, this thing of 
being President is a matter of habit. I would not 
bribe you, but, by way of reward, I will have you 
nominated for President of the United States at the 
next convention of your party." 

The first literary meeting of the Society, for the 
season of 1879-80, was held at Mrs. F. W. Lander's, 
on the 27th of December. 



IO 

General Garfield presided, and on taking the chair 
spoke of the value of such associations as ours in keep- 
ing up a love for literature, and in forcing us, as it 
were, to renew our vows. 

He said, further, that for himself, he had found, in 
the reunions of this Society, great pleasure and com- 
fort. From the busy whirl of public affairs, in which 
he was compelled to move from day to day, he can 
the " Literary," as men return from their wan 
in the world to the homes of their childh 

The literary exercises at this meeting were, a 
entitled " First Cables," by General Benjamin rd, 

three poems by Mrs. R. Cary Long, and an ess; oil 
the "Gesture Language of Mankind," by Col. Garrick 
Mallery. 

At the second meeting for the n, held at 

residence of Judge Johnston, on the [oth of J 
1880, General Garfield presided. 

The subject for consideration was " The > 
merits of the Prose Writers and Poets of America" 

At the commencement of the discussion, the Pr< 
dent announced his intention to make som 
at the close, but the time allotted to debate \v 
than filled by the members of the Society, leaving him 
no opportunity to speak. 

The third meeting for the season was held 
General Garfield's residence on the 24th of Januai 
the host for the evening occupying the chair. 

The literary exercises consisted of a translation from 



II 

the German of a curious story entitled, The Greatest 
Man in the World, by Mrs. Chapman Coleman, and a 
paper on The Poetry of the Deaf, by the present 
speaker. 

The President made interesting comments on both 
these papers. 

The fourth occasion on which General Garfield pre- 
sided was at the residence of the speaker, on the 
evening of February 21, 1880. 

The discussion, which was upon incidents in the 
history of General Washington, was closed by the 
President. In the course of his remarks General Gar- 
field called attention to the remarkable fecundity of 
Virginia in great men about the Revolutionary period, 
and named seven of her sons who were eminent in 
various capacities, viz: Patrick Henry as orator, Lee as 
cavalry leader, Madison as constitutional expounder, 
Marshall as jurist, Mason as parliamentary debater, 
Jefferson as philosophical statesman, and Washington 
as soldier, statesman, and patriot. 

General Garfield suggested that an inquiry as to 
the causes of this unusual wealth of talent, found in 
one State at one epoch, might furnish the Society an 
interesting subject for discussion at some future meet- 
ing. 

Those who were present at Judge Johnston's on the 
evening of February 26, 1881, will remember what 
pleasure and profit the consideration of this question 
afforded the Society. 



12 

General Garfield presided for the fifth time at the 
residence of Governor Win. Claflin, on the evening 
of the 3d of April, 1880. 

At that meeting a paper by Airs. Claflin on The 
Life and Character of John Greenleaf Whit tier was 
read, and the question, What desirable social elements 
are endangered by a too rapid advance of civilization 
was discussed. 

In closing the debate the President referred to an 
occasion when, being hindered for some hours on a 
railway train by a heavy fall of snow, he was led to 
reflect as to what was to be done, or had been done, 
with the leisure made available to mankind by the 
many labor-saving inventions of the present century. 

From these remarks came the suggestion of a sub- 
ject, the discussion of which, it will be remembei 
occupied the evening at Mr. Charles Nordhoft's, on the 
15th of January, of the present year. 

Our late President occupied the chair for the last 
time at Dr. C. W. Hoffman's residence, on the evening 
of May 1 st, 1880. 

The night was warm, and the windows were open. 
At the conclusion of the reading of the minutes of the 
previous meeting the sound of lively music in the 
street interfered with the proceedings. Immediately 
some one remarked u It is the circus." General Gar- 
field, with that boyish impulsiveness of manner which 
was not unusual with him, exclaimed, "The circus? 
come, then, friends, we will suspend for a few minutes. 



13 

and go and see it pass by." So the Society crowded 
the windows and front steps until the circus had 
passed. 

The literary exercises for that evening consisted of 
two poems, by Mrs. R. Cary Long, one a translation 
from the French of Victor Hugo, and an essay on the 
" Relation of Poetry to Art," by Mr. E. H. Miller. 

The President made pertinent remarks on all the 
literary contributions, and recited a poem by Mrs. 
Browning, of which, he said, he was reminded by Mrs. 
Long's translation from Victor Hugo. 

The record of General Garfield's presence with the 
Society would be incomplete without mention of the 
reception given in his honor by Miss E. B. Johnston, 
at the residence of her brother, on the 17th of June, 

1880. 

Those who were present on that occasion, ever to be 
remembered, will not soon forget with what simplicity 
and modesty he bore himself, and how plainly he ex- 
pressed distrust of his fitness for the high position in 
which his party had placed him. 

Nor will the memory soon fade away of the cordial 
warmth with which he met his old friends on that day, 
and the evident pleasure he felt at being able to come 
from the heated arena of politics into what he was 
wont to call his literary home. 

The pressure of his official duties as President of 
the United States, and the event of Mrs. Garfield's ill- 
ness, which followed his inauguration by only a few 



14 

weeks, prevented General Garfield from attendir 
any of the meetings of the Society during the last sea- 
son. But assurances of his continued interest were 
not lacking. Flowers were sent from the Bxecutive 
Mansion on more than one occasion to attest his re- 
membrance of the Society. 

To one of our lady members he said, not many days 
before the final meeting for the season, at Chief-Jus- 
tice Drake's, on the 2ist of May: "I will try and be 
there — I think I might come home- and addin 

" It will be the appropriate thing tor the President of 
the United States to preside when the character and 
services of Lafayette are di ed." Then, a 

pressing his great regret that he had not been able t<> 
attend the recent meetings, he s.iid : "You have no 
idea of the burden of each hour — I think of the S< 
as a rest." 

It is not easy to measure the extenl or weigh! of the 
influence which has been and which will ' ed 

on our Society by the membership of General Garfield. 

The magnetism of his personal presence at a meet- 
ing was sufficient to gild a dull hour into brilliam 

The utterances of his thought upon any subji I 
flowed as from a full resenoir, and were invariably 
stimulating and suggesti- 

His example, as one who, in spite of the many - 
mands of public life, still found time to work as a 
student, and to keep himself fresh in general litera- 



*5 

ture, was a standing rebuke to many a less ardent de- 
votee of letters. 

Marked and strong as was the impress of his in- 
fluence on the current of thought and action in the 
Society while he remained a member, no prophetic 
vision is needed to foresee that the future results of 
his connection with it may exceed many fold those of 
the past. 

The fact in its history of having once had such a 
President must surely incite members to strive for the 
highest possible standard of literary excellence in 
their individual work, as well as in the work of the 
Society. 

And if the result of such effort should be to secure 
for the Society a recognition in the world of letters as 
an organization well deserving to bear the name it 
has assumed, then will he be honored, in deed, to 
whose memory we would give all possible honor in 
word and thought to-night. 



At the conclusion of the Vice-President's address, Mr. Theodore 
F. Dwight, the Secretary of the Society, announced Mr. Ainsworth R. 
Spofford as the next speaker. 

THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER AND METHODS OE 

GARFIELD. 

By AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD. 



I have been requested to give to the Society some 
account of the intellectual life of our late President, 



i6 

the books lie read, the subjects of thought which in- 
terested him, with his methods of study and of prepa- 
ration for his public utterances. 

Among the men whom I have known whose lives 
were engrossed in public affairs, President Garfield 
was one of the most extensive readers. Not that he 
absolutely travelled through more books than some 
others, but he used a multitude of authors by way 
hints, suggestions, or authorities. It was the habit of 
his mind, apparently very early formed, t< aerali 
to seek for great leading principles, and to push his 
investigations of a subject until he had covered all the 
ground that time permitted, before putting his own 
ideas into form. To this end he read rapidly, seizing 
with quick intuition the portions of a book which had 
anything to his purpose, and throwing aside as quickly 
those which yielded nothing. His perceptive faculth 
were of the highest order; his mind was comprehen- 
sive, and his tendency was to take the largest view of 
every subject. His fair-mindedness made him reco 
nize the merit often of opposing views, and his unfail- 
ing courtesy and suavity of manner made him a gen- 
eral favorite. He was never chary of asking tance 
in laying out the materials for any work he had to do. 
He made no mystery of what he was about ; concealed 
nothing of his purposes or methods; drew freely upon 
his friends for suggestions; used his family, secre- 
taries, and librarians to look up authorities, or, if he 
found the time, he looked them up himself. When 



17 

he had examined the field as thoroughly as he was 
able, he organized his subject in his own mind, and, 
if the speech was to be in Congress, he seldom wrote 
more than a few of its leading outlines, leaving the 
substance, as well as the diction, to the occasion. He 
sometimes memorized, but many of his finest utter- 
ances were struck out in the white heat of debate. He 
had a genuine love of discussion, and the activity of 
his intellect was such as to give him rare advantages 
in extemporaneous discourse. You, who have heard 
him speak, recall the vivid force of his utterance, the 
solidity of his matter, the clear logic of his reasoning, 
the occasional beauty of his imagery or illustrations, 
the sympathetic and persuasive tones of his voice, and 
the electric energy with which he marched through 
his subject with the bearing of a master. His audi- 
ences, though composed, as regards most of his public 
utterances, of the most difficult — not to say critical — 
elements in America, (a body of lawyers, orators, and 
politicians,) were often held spellbound to the close. 
No man who has spoken in that forum during the last 
quarter of a century has succeeded better in holding 
that proverbially unwilling and often impervious organ, 
known as "the ear of the House." No man who ever 
spoke in that trying auditorium has more impressed 
his auditors as fulfilling the Demosthenean rule of 
eloquence — that its first, its second, and its third con- 
dition is earnestness. 

Conjoined with this intensity, both of conviction and 



i8 

of expression, was a uniform and unfailing courtesy to- 
wards his opponents, which marked the inherent fair- 
mindedness of the man. Amidst all the animosities of 
the fiercest political warfare he always kept his tem- 
per. He kept, too, in a degree which is too rare among 
public men, the respect and the friendship of his 
political adversaries. That gentle suavity of demeanor 
which combined with his evident sincerity to make 
every one his friend, made him a chivalrous opponent 
and a generous foe. He impugned no man's motives ; 
he scorned the petty personalities of debate ; respect- 
ing himself, he had an abiding respect for the honesty 
and rectitude of purpose of those who differed from 
him. Though an ardent partisan, believing in the 
necessity and recognising the benefits of parties in the 
State, he would not resist the recognition of merit in 
opposing views, and his nature was far too catholic to 
be bound by the blind and dogged bigotry of party. 
Hence he sometimes drew down upon himself the cen- 
sure of his more radical brethren, for yielding points to 
the adversary. The facts were that Garfield had the 
insight to see, and the honesty to acknowledge, that his 
party was fallible; that it might make, and had made 
mistakes, and that, to persist in defending errors, was 
not the road either to truth or to permanent party 
ascendancy. He had the manliness to go before the 
Supreme Court in March, 1866, in defence of the in- 
defeasible right of the citizen to civil process and jury 
trial in States which were not the immediate theatre 



19 

of war. His argument in the case of Milligan and 
others, tried by court-martial in Indiana, and denied 
the benefit of habeas corpus, was a cogent and power- 
ful appeal in behalf of the muniments of civil liberty, 
against the violence and the passion of party. The 
epoch was near the flood-tide of the great Union senti- 
ment which swept away all barriers, and crushed out, 
not only the rebellion, but every apology or extenua- 
tion of it that found voice in any part of the land. To 
be a Copperhead or the defender of Copperheads was 
to run the risk of unpopularity or of ostracism. Gar- 
field ran that risk, in obedience to his sense of duty, 
and his calm and manly plea, fortified as it was by the 
best precedents and the most impressive dicta of 
writers on public law, and closing with that classic 
peroration in which he invoked the judges to erect the 
shrine of impartial justice in the Capitol, was sustained 
by the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court. 
His course on this occasion, being as he was the repre- 
sentative of the most intensly radical anti-slavery dis- 
trict in the Union, showed him capable of seeing both 
sides of a question. It provoked much hostile criti- 
cism, and he told his constituents that he did it "in 
defence of what appeared to me a most vital and im- 
portant principle : that in no part of our civil com- 
munity must the military be exalted above the civil 
authority." It is to the credit of his constituents that 
they honored him for his independence, and returned 
him continuously to Congress until he was chosen 



20 

Senator. In this important case he neither expected 
nor received any compensation. Those who have 
found Garfield guilty of a fatal want of moral coura 
would do well to study, under the fierce light of the 
time when it was done, what he did on that occasion. 

The history of Garfield's mind was a continuous 
growth, from very crude beginnings until lie became 
one of the best equipped men in public life. His 
early culture was so deficient that, when Ik- began 
with a fixed resolve to get an education, he had many 
obstacles to overcome. But he mastered them all, and 
was an eager student of books before he had yet 
learned their true and highest uses. As he wrote of 
Abraham Lincoln, so was it true of himself: 'The few- 
books that came within his reach he devoured with 
the divine hunger of genius." When away from dic- 
tionaries and cyclopaedias, he would make notes of all 
the words and allusions which he did not comprehend 
in the books he read, and looked them up as soon as 
opportunity could be found. His early experience as 
a teacher helped him, as it has helped many othei 
both to acquire and to arrange clearly his know! 
for immediate use. He wrote copiously at all periods 
of his life, and at college in [856 he was chosen one of 
the editors of the "Williams Quarterly," in which 
appeared essays from his pen on the Province of His- 
tory, the writings of the German lyric poet, Korner, a 
parody on Tennyson, etc. He was also elected Presi- 
dent of the Philologian Society — a debating club in 



21 

which the students exercised their powers, arguing 
many of the questions that divided opinion in history, 
literature, politics, and social life. 

His early style, before he acquired that refined taste 
which conies from familiarity with the classic models, 
and especially from the Greek, was somewhat crude 
and declamatory. In fact, he never quite got over a 
certain exuberance and effusion which came from his 
large, free, gushing nature and ardent temperament. 
He strove to check this tendency, and in sober compo- 
sition he succeeded well in doing so. He was con- 
scious of the defects which spoil most of our public 
speaking for any permanent effect or place in literature. 
But he was conscious, too, of the possession of great 
faculties for impressing men, and he passionately loved 
the power and the opportunities of the public orator. 
Given a theme of patriotic interest, and a great sym- 
pathetic audience, and he delighted in the exercise of 
his gift of speech, as a strong man to run a race. 
There he would let out the whole volume of that sono- 
rous voice, whose tones swayed and stirred the audi- 
ence like the sound of a trumpet, while the sledge- 
hammer blows of his powerful left arm "(almost his 
only gesture) enforced his utterances. The upturned 
sea of faces before him gazed with intent look, almost 
as absorbed as he, while the fervid orator, with head 
thrown far back — a head like that of the Olympian 
j 0V e — drove home the strong points of his argument. 
Then would come, ever and anon, a volley of applause ; 



22 

and when he closed, the ringing shouts and cheers 
broke forth, for the multitude idolized Garfield. 

Of the effect of much stump speaking upon his 
modes of thinking, Garfield thus wrote to a friend : 

" I have no doubt that it induces a looseness and 
superficiality of thought and an extravagance of ex- 
pression ; but, on the other hand, it has some compen- 
sations." 

It will readily be gathered, by those who know the 
exacting nature of public station at Washington, that 
Garfield had little time for discursive reading. Yet he 
was never without a quantity of books on hand, upon 
which he drew at odd intervals. When travelling he 
generally took a book with him, and in the vacations 
of Congress he read and studied much. While the 
majority of the works for which lie drew upon the 
Library were books of fact and of reference, he had a 
wide range and a catholic taste in the realm of litera- 
ture that lay outside ot these. He read, first and last, 
a great deal of history, and was nearly as familiar with 
the history of England as with that of our own country. 
Biographies he did not specially affect, but read only 
a few, and those of the great leading name For 
mere narratives of travel he cared but little, and sea 
voyages lost their charm quite early for him. But for 
the researches and discoveries on the sites of ancient 
cities — Troy, Ephesus, Cyprus, and Mycenae — he had 
a keen appetite. Of metaphysics proper he read little 
or nothing; but the masters of thinking, who apply 



23 

logic and the science of mind to great social and polit- 
ical problems, lie held in high regard. For Carlyle 
he once had a great enthusiasm, but in later years he 
read him little. Emerson he read and re-read with 
ever fresh admiration. He was interested in natural 
science, and loved to trace out natural laws, in the 
genesis and growth of plants, in geology, in heredity, 
etc. He studied political economy much, and had 
read nearly all the leading writers. He was one of 
the few men in politics who had an}- clear conception 
of the functions of money and the laws of finance. 
He was interested in genealogy and in his own family 
history. I remember his satisfaction at finding in the 
Visitation of Middlesex that there was one Abraham 
Garfield enrolled two centuries ago among the vast 
population of London. He delighted in tracing out 
etymologies, and in running words home to their roots 
in Greek, Latin, German, or Anglo-Saxon. His own 
name he found to be from field and the Saxon Gaer, 
a field- watcher, which, freely rendered, is "a wide- 
awake farmer," and such, in the estimation of his rural 
neighbors at Mentor, Garfield certainly was. One of 
his latest searches, in June last, was to trace through 
various town histories of Massachusetts his own ances- 
try, with its collateral branches, and that of his wife. 

His taste for the classics, early imbibed, appeared to 
lose no zest with the advance of age or of cares. He 
was never too busy to quote Horace, or to come to the 
library after a half-remembered passage in Virgil. 



24 

In the midst of one of the busiest sessions of Congress, 
he struck off one day " in the rough," as he termed it, 
a metrical translation of the fine ode of Horace, "To 
the ship which carried Virgil to Athens." I can give 
only a \ erse or two: 

.iv the powerful p Cyprus, 

may the brother! H .i.-n,to»i wt 

• temp. 
R . :ning all others, .save only l.r. 

•' Guide thee, 
To Attica's . \ -gil trusted CO tl 

I pray thee restore him, in safer) ! him, 

i saving him, save me the il." 

lie used frequently to lament his failure to pur- 
chase, from want of money, a fine set of Lemaire's 

Latin Classics, which he saw on one of the quays 
of Paris on occasion of his only visit to Europe. 

One of his special studies, taken up by him in ri 
and pursued with his customary zeal, was an investi- 
gation as to the Sabine farm of Horace, where the 
great poet raised wine and olives, its locality, soil, and 
other characteristics. This he pursued through many 
volumes, gleaning everything that could throw the 
faintest light upon the subject. At another time he- 
made a careful study of Goethe and his leading ecu- 
temporaries in Germany, and wrote out for himself 
(not for publication) an extended sketch of the intel- 
lectual life of Europe at the beginning and at the 
close of Goethe's career. 



25 

His favorite poet, next to Shakespeare and Horace, 
was Tennyson ; and next, I think, Elizabeth Brown- 
ing. Of the best novels he never tired, and his 
prime favorites he read over and over again. I well 
remember his questioning the dictum of some critic 
that George Eliot's Romola was the most perfect work 
of fiction ever written. When asked his own prefer- 
ence, he unhesitatingly gave the palm to Thackeray, 
but could not quite make up his mind which of that 
author's works was the finest as a master-piece of fiction. 
He intensely enjoyed the exquisite fun of Dickens — 
unlike the late Charles Sumner, who seldom read a 
novel, and had almost no sense of humor. Garfield 
has been sometimes compared with Sumner as a man 
of letters, but between the two men there were far 
more striking contrasts than points of resemblance. 

Garfield's library motto was " inter folia fructus" — 
fruit among the leaves; and a rare gatherer of the 
sweet fruits of literature was he. His interest in 
libraries was great, and he made the Library at the 
Capitol the recipient of his large annual collection of 
pamphlets. After he was President he continued his 
visits to the Library, always accompanied by his wife, 
whose intellectual gifts were a noble complement to 
his own. His entrance into the Library, no matter on 
how serious an errand, was always like a gleam of 
sunshine. 

Of the writings of Garfield, the most numerous 
were his speeches and occasional addresses. Many 



26 

of these bear the marks of the most careful prepara- 
tion. He was ever most solicitous to verify every 
fact and quotation, and, after speaking ex tempore, he 
was anxious until he had carefully corrected the 
proofs. Among the notably excellent of his addre! i s 
were his speech at the Burns festival in Washington ; 
the Commemorative address on Decoration Day at 
Arlington Cemetery; his .jth of July oration in 1N60 
at Ravenna, Ohio ; his Faneuil Hall speech in 1873; 
his address before the American Social Science 0- 

ciation ; his eulogy on Gen. George II. Thomas at 
Cleveland in 1S70; his discourse on College Edu< 
tion at Hiram, Ohio ; his address on the Future of the 
Republic, and his speech on the occasion of the 
acceptance by Congress of the statues from Massa- 
chusetts of Winthrop and Adams in the National 
Memorial Hall. Even into that dreary desert of 
obituary addresses which burden the I ressional 
Record, Garfield threw a gleam of human interest 
by his fine eulogies pronounced upon Starkweather 
and Morton. His contributions to the Atlantic 
Monthly and to the North American A',: 
become widely known. One of his articles but little 
known is the elaborate paper upon the census, ancient 
and modern, contributed by him to the first volume of 
Johnsons Universal Cyclopaedia in 1872. This is a 
performance which would do credit to the most care- 
ful scholar. 

Out of the writings of our departed brother let us 



27 

take a few — a very few — examples of his thought, 
which are here jotted down quite at random : 

" Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture." 

" The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have 
been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some 
work relating to others." 

" If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written 
upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old." 

" True art is but the antitype of nature — the embodiment of discovered 
beauty in utility." 

" There is nothing to me in this world so inspiring as the possibilities 
that lie locked up in the head and breast of a young man." 

" The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a contempt 
for mere external show." 

" The right of private judgment is absolute in every American citizen." 

" We have happily escaped the dogma of the divine right of kings. 
Let us not fall into the equally pernicious error that multitude is divine 
because it is a multitude." 

'• Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In 
legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be understood that 
we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws." 

" Ideas are the only things in this universe that are immortal." 

" There is nothing on all the earth that you and I can do for the dead. 
They do not need us, but forever and forever more we need them." 

" We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of 
Adam, but to bad nursing and ignorance." 

" Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up." 

To sum up, for the alluring theme must not tempt 
me on, I think you will concur with me in the judg- 
ment that there have been few characters, indeed, 
who have united in themselves so much at once of the 



28 

strength and the sweetness of human nature. A man 
of marked individuality — of robust intellect as well as 
of robust physical frame, he yet had rare refinements 
of taste, and rare gentleness of temper. The only 
faults that he ever had came from his too great softness 
of nature. There were many who envied him his 
splendid animal spirits, his sunny temperament, his 
frank, hearty, and cheerful way — in short, what seemed 
to be his genuine delight in living, [f sometimes in 
later years, when worn down with care and severe 
labor, he was weary or melancholy, he quickly re- 
covered himself. He delighted in the fresh, un- 
hackneyed ways of children, and in the perennial 
charm of youth. Even in the midst of that fearfully 
trying ordeal of the Presidential campaign of [88 . 
when the venom of a thousand Guiteaus poured from a 
thousand pens upon him, and the long campaign of 
slander bore witness to the unutterable brutality 
our politics, he kept the serenity of his temper. 

Would you see an example of a strong and healthy 
nature, improved but not spoiled by the refinements of 
culture? You will find it in Garfield. Would yon 
look for a scholar of lofty ideals and instinctive habits 
of investigation, the law of whose mind was progr< 
forever more ? You will discover him in ( Airfield. I ><> 
you seek for a patriot full of enthusiasm for the K 
public, growing continually in political wisdom, and 
rising from a politician into a statesman? Lo 
Garfield. Are there those in foreign lands who would 



2 9 

study our free institutions and the men they breed, 
and find out the typical American ? Behold him in 
Garfield ! 

But he is gone. We shall no more see that beam- 
ing face; the tones of that cheery voice we shall hear 
no more forever. No more will his lips utter for us 
those wise and thoughtful sayings to which we were 
wont to listen. Since we last met together a tragedy 
more pathetic than the pages of antiquity record has 
taken away at once the head of this Society and the 
head of the Nation. To many here present the sense 
of public calamity is overshadowed by a private grief 
too profound and sacred to be expressed in words. In 
the fine elegiac verse of Shakespeare : 

" Fear no more the lightning flash, 

Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone : 
Fear not slander, censure rash ; 

Thou hast finished joy and moan : 
Quiet consummation have, 
And renowned be thy grave. 

" Fear no more the heat of the sun, 

Nor the furious winter's rages ; 

Thou thy worldly task hast done, 

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages." 

Into that unknown home of the immortals our eyes 
cannot follow him. But there is left to us the ex- 
ample of his achievements, the benign memory of his 
person and character, the consolation that he has well 
done his work in the world, and that the world is the 
better that he has lived in it. 



30 

At the conclusion of Mr. Spofford's address, the Vice-President called 
attention to the life-size three-quarter length study of General Garfield, 
in oils, which had been especially prepared for this meeting, within the 
past week, by Mr. E. F. Andrews: also to a head of the late President, 
in crayon, by Mr. E. H. Miller. There was also exhibited a drawing 
by Mr. Miller after the design of Miss E. B.Johnston for a National Gar- 
field Medal, submitted by her to the United States Senate and referred by 
that body to the Joint Committee on the Library. 

Attention was also called to photographs of Garfield when a boy and 
when in the army, sent by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett, who was unable to be 
present. 

The Secretary then read a letter from Mr. Horace B. Scudder, of 
Cambridge, Mass., a college friend of General Garfield, expressing 
regret at his inability to be present ; also the following letter from Mrs. 
Garfield : 

Cleveland, ( >hio, Nov. y, 1SS1. 

Prof. E. M. Gallaudet, 

Vice-President of tht Literary Sot it ty : 

My Dear Friend: Yours of the ~\\\ inst. is re- 
ceived, and I thank you for all your kind words of 
sympathy with us iu this great sorrow. All you say of 
my husband is especially precious to me. That he 
will preside again — in the memory of him which will 
fill all your hearts on the anniversary night — "the 
fiftieth" — is to me a dear thought. I wish I were able 
to contribute something to your paper in the way of 
reminiscence, but the blinding darkness of the night 
which has fallen upon my life seems to have turned 
me back upon chaos, and all memories seem to have 
been swallowed up in the one overwhelming thought, 
" I have loved and lost !" 

I know how interested General Garfield was in all 



3i 

3 7 our work, and I shall always remember 3 t ou all with 
tenderest love. 

Our mother is not here just now, but I know she 
would send to you kindest remembrances. 

With sincerest affection to Mrs. Gallaudet, I remain, 
Most truly your friend, 

LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD. 

The Vice-President then announced Col Mallery as the next speaker. 
THE RELATIONS OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD TO SCIENCE. 



By Col. GARRICK. MALLERY, U S A 



The laws of science are deduced only from the cor- 
rect classification of ascertained facts. For the estab- 
lishment of those laws the world is indebted to three 
classes of men. Some can observe the facts, and even 
classify them for their own use, without the power of 
formulation to the public ; others can express in dis- 
tinct and attractive style either their own ideas or 
those of more originative minds ; but the progress of 
both classes would be slow and uncertain without the 
aid of a third, which provides the means requisite for 
observation and publication. History tells us how 
much has been gained through the substantial contri- 
butions of the mere dilletanti and the avaricious, in 
their support of true workers ; but more deserving of 
gratitude than the aid derived from vanity and greed 
is that produced by purely benevolent personal exer- 
tion, wholly impersonal regarding considerations of 



32 

reward. In this respect science recognizes its endur- 
ing obligation to James A. Garfield. 

In his short life of busy action there was little time 
for the full fruitage of original scientific research, yet 
from his character of mind and methods of work it is 
not to be doubted that if lie had been spared to the 
dignified leisure properly succeeding Presidential ser- 
vice he would have exhibited in that direction also an 
inestimable result from his eeaseless and well-ordered 
studies. In spite of all distractions, he had already 
accumulated the necessary facts with orderly arrangi 
ment, and only time was wanting for the comprehen- 
sive discovery and formal expression oi principh 
in fields even wider than statesmanship. It is obvious 
that he ever chafed against that limitation, and his 
characteristic energy in progressive self-development 
would, with the opportunities of riper years, ha 
mounted far above it — 

" To follow knowledge, like a sinking star. 
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought." 

That his reflections had for years been turned in 
the direction indicated may be shown by his criticism 
on the ordinary collegiate curriculum. Notwithstand- 
ing his own keen personal enjoyment of the classics 
and joyous appreciation of even the lighter forms of 
literature, his conviction of the paramount importance 
of practical science must have been cogent when he 
could speak as follows ; 



33 

" Our educational forces are so wielded as to teach our children to ad- 
mire most that which is foreign and fabulous and dead. Our American 
children must know all the classic rivers, from the Scamander to the 
yellow Tiber, must tell you the length of the Appian Way, and of the 
canal over which Horace and Virgil sailed on their journey to Brundusium ; 
but he may be crowned with baccalaureate honors without having heard, 
since his first moment of Freshman life, one word concerning the 122,000 
miles of coast and river navigation, the 6,000 miles of canal, and the 
35,000 miles of railroad, which indicate both the prosperity and the pos- 
sibilities of his own country. 

********* 

" A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of literary culture. 
The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where the thunderbolts of Jove 
were fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully 
than those sturdy truths which are preaching to this generation in the 
wonders of the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron 
mills, and the other innumerable industries which, more than all other 
human agencies, have made our civilization what it is, and are destined to 
achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This generation is beginning to 
understand that education should not be forever divorced from industry ; 
that the highest results can be reached only when science guides the hand 
of labor. With what eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every truth 
of science and putting it in harness!" 

From these passages it is obvious that the expe- 
rience of the statesman supplemented the enthusiasm 
of the scholar. He knew that the present criterion of 
a nation's status in civilization is its advance in 
science. His studies had taught him that even the 
most civilized of the ancient peoples had no concep- 
tion of progress in science ; indeed, until quite modern 
times the newest thought was the ultimate thought, 
not as now understood, but another step toward com- 
plete knowledge, a step taken with humble confession 
of the little yet accomplished. 



34 

All the great scientific institutions connected with 
our Government, which shed lustre on our national 
name while assuring the growth of industrial re- 
sources to our citizens, were fostered into strength, 
and nearly all originated, during General Garfield's 
Congressional career, and with his active participation 
and direction in the several capacities he filled, but 
more markedly shown while chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Appropriations of the House of Representa- 
tives. The annual appropriations, direct and indirect, 
for these institutions now amount to the magnificent 
sum of ten millions of dollars — an investment hearing 
noble interest. Whatever may be the final outcome 
of our cis-Atlautic experiment in government, and of 
our wondrous racial amalgam, our certain triumph will 
be the rapid subjugation of a vast continent to man's 
beneficial use through the practical application of 
scientific laws now in process of enunciation. That 
without governmental recognition, these would have 
been indefinitely delayed, General Garfield fully 
appreciated, and his lame is inseparably connected 
with them. Had he accomplished nan- lit more-, he 
would thus have raised for himself an enduring 
monument in contrast to the ruck of legislators, who 
depend only on the fugitive notoriety of Congressional 
records and the dubious dignity of returning board 
certificates. He supported with his eloquence and 
energy the Light-House Board; the Coast and Geo- 
detic Survey; the several geologic and geographical 



35 

surveys and their concentration into the present 
systematized United States Geological Survey ; the 
Department of Agriculture ; the Fish and the En- 
tomological Commissions; the Bureau of Ethnology; 
the National Museum, and the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, of which he was an elected Regent. He was the 
father of the Bureau of Education, the active advocate 
for fifteen years of the National Deaf-Mute College, 
and to my knowledge the most efficient friend of the 
meteorological division of the Signal Service from its 
meagre and tentative commencement. As chairman 
of the Committee on the Census of 1870 he specially 
showed a full understanding of scientific methods, and 
a determination that they should be applied in the 
thorough and accurate collection, not merely of the 
numbers of inhabitants, but of all social, political, and 
physical facts attainable. He saw that the aggrega- 
tion and classification of these facts would bring forth 
the laws constituting science, and therefore establish 
true principles of national legislation. To quote his 
own language : 

"Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing 
or evading results. Statistical science is indispensable to modern states- 
manship. In legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be 
understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their 
laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national 
will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics." 

A parallel might well be drawn between him and 
Edmund Burke, not as regards the immediate sway of 
their oratory upon an audience, in which the American 



36 

surpassed the British statesman, but including the 
preparation for that oratory and its lasting effect. 
They each excelled all contemporaries by marvellous 
industry in gathering facts and numbers, and by philo- 
sophic selection and marshalling of them, to serve 
equally well for practical use and for poetic illustra- 
tion. By the electrolysis of their genius figures of 
statistics became for a time figures of rhetoric, with 
capacity of reverting to their original powers. 

But he did not grant his approval to every scheme 
for subsidizing even attractive and interesting lines of 
scientific research. His judicious and discriminating 
reflections upon the true relations of the Government 
to science require an extended quotation : 

" It is of the utmost importance that whatever t lie United States un 
takes to do in reference to science shall he done upon some well-under- 
stood, well-reasoned, and well-defined system. * * ■ It is a safe 
and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever the people can 
without legislation will be better done than by the intervention 
the State or the Nation. 

"This leads me to inquire what ought to be the relation of the Ni 
tional Government to science ? What, if anything, ought we to do in the 
way of promoting science? For example, if we have the power, would 
it be wise for Congress to appropriate money out of the Treasury to em- 
ploy naturalists to find out all that is to be known of our American bir.: 
Ornithology is a delightful and useful study; but would it be wi 
Congress to make an appropriation for the advancement of that scicn- 
In my judgment, manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored 
class of men the rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private w 
following the bent of their genius, may be working out the re 
science in that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our 
Treasury for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement 



37 

ot science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work in- 
jury to religion. 

" Generally the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone; to work 
in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop 
their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to 
have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise. 

" As a general principle, therefore, the United States ought not to in- 
terfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the free, 
voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. 

" In this non-interference theory of the Government I do not go to the 
extent of saying that we should do nothing for education — for primary 
education. That comes under another consideration — the necessity of the 
nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser 
to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of the 
higher sciences. 

" To the general principle I have stated there are a few obvious excep- 
tions which should be clearlv understood when we legislate on the sub- 
ject. In the first place the Government should aid all sorts of scientific 
inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its own functions. 

" For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled 
by necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish 
fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in refer- 
ence to light and its laws, sound and its laws — to do whatever in the way 
of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting our coasts and 
warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building iron-clads for 
our Navy or casting guns for our Army, we ought to know all that is 
scientifically possible to be known about the strength of materials and the 
laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In short, wherever in 
exercising any of the necessary functions of the Government scientific 
inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest extent, and at the public 
expense. 

" There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the 
voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, 
affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, imperatively 
need scientific investigation, and private enterprise cannot accomplish it, 
.we may wisely intervene and help where the Constitution gives us 
authority. For example, in discovering the origin of yellow fever and 
the methods of preventing its ravages the nation should do, for the good 
of all, what neither the States nor individuals can accomplish. I might, 



38 

perhaps, include in a third exception those inquiries which, in conse- 
quence of their great magnitude and cost, cannot he successfully made by 
private individuals. Outside these three classes of inquiries, the Govern- 
ment ought to keep its hands off, and leave scientific experiment and 
inquiry to the free competition of those bright, intelligent men whose 
genius leads them into the fields of research." 

It might not have been expected that he would 
have been able to use his influence concerning the 

Army when chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs, or at other times, to directly advance scieni 
and general knowledge, yet this he achieved. In- 
effectively encouraged the employment of the leisure 
and talent of military officers, during peace, for study, 
experiment, and action in works of civilization pend- 
ing the occasions when arts of destruction should 
claim them. The Army and Navy were to him not 
merely reserved forces, to remain latent except in war. 
He considered, too, that whatever is nol useful is 
hurtful, and that the Army could only be dangerous in 
time of peace when through either neglect or com- 
pulsion it became idle. He therefore stimulated the 
interest of officers in other directions than guard- 
mounting and dress-parades, knowing that besides the 
actual production of good work they would be better 
officers as well as better men when not mere .lists, 

but devoting their time and energies to acquire and 
extend scientific information. For this object he 
steadily contended against the petty jealousy of mar- 
tinets in high rank, whose sole mode of fabricating 
their own loftiness was by depressing all but such 



39 

flunkies as were willing to be mere extensions of 
their master's plumes and bullion. 

It was my privilege, in connection with duty in the 
Signal Service, to be present at several of the sessions 
of the Committee on Appropriations during General 
Garfield's chairmanship, and to observe his methods of 
work. It is well known that he was absolutely 
thorough in his mastery of every detail concerning 
measures introduced by or presented to him, often 
more so than the officers in charge of the institutions 
to be benefited; but I was struck by the skillful 
manner in which, with his unsatiable thirst for all 
useful knowledge, he would cross-examine all well- 
informed persons appearing before him until they 
yielded up the whole that he desired to know. Fre- 
quently he would retain such persons after the formal 
sessions, or make appointments to meet them socially, 
and having obtained additional suggestions would 
pursue or verify them through many volumes and 
documents. What was thus ascertained was, by dicta- 
tion or transcription, placed in permanent form, always 
thereafter accessible, so that his auspicious motto inter 
folia fructus was observed to the letter. 

It may not be germane to the present theme to dwell 
upon Garfield's noble independence of the bare preju- 
dices of constituents, or upon his conception of a 
higher fealty than that paid to the shifting gusts of 
party clamor. It is, however, proper to notice that his 
distaste for limited politics, as distinct from statesman- 



40 

ship, was shown in the admiration, mingled with long- 
ing, with which he contemplated the serene vocations 
of scientists and educators. This is expressed in his 

eulogy of Joseph Henry : 

" During all the years of his sojourn among us there has hcen one spot 
in this city across which the shadow of partisan politics has never (alien, 
and that was the ground of the Smithsonian Institution." 

The thought was repeated in his last important 
public address, that on May 4, 1881, the Presentation 
Day of the National Deaf-Mute College : 

"I would like to sav another thing: that during these many 
public service I have loved to look upon this ,h a neutral ground, where, 
from all our political bickerings and differences, we come under the white 
flag of truce that should be raised over every school-house and college in 
the land." 

I can best close by quoting our late- President's con- 
siderations on the objects attained by science-: 

"The scientific spirit has cast out the demons and presented us with 
Nature, clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It 
has givn us for the sorceries of the alchemist the beautiful \a 
chemistry ; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths 
astronomy ; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of 
geology ; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of G 



At the conclusion of Col. Mallery's ad.!- . the Vice-President 
announced as the next speaker Mr. Chief-Justice Drake, who was General 
Garfield's predecessor as President of the Soci 

REMARKS OF CHIEF-JUSTICE DRAB 

After the carefully prepared and excellent pa] 
which have been read, I can venture but a few words. 



4i 

I shall refer to General Garfield as an orator, in 
which character he was, I think, one of the foremost 
men that this country has produced. What I have to 
say refers principally to an address he made soon after 
his nomination for the Presidency, on the occasion of 
the unveiling- of a monument at Painesville, Ohio, to 
the soldiers from that place who had given their lives 
for their country in the war of the rebellion. I cannot 
repeat his words, but I remember that he set out to 
tell the assembled multitude what that monument 
taught; and he drew from it, I think, three lessons. 
When I read the first, it was so elevated in tone, so 
striking in thought, and so inspiring in sentiment, that 
it seemed to me there was little more to be said. 
When he set forth the second lesson, he stepped up to 
a higher plane, and as my mind followed him I found 
myself wondering how he would come down from there. 
But he did come down safely and gracefully. As he 
pointed to the third lesson he rose into a still more 
elevated region, and as I read his grand words the 
feeling came over me that he could not get down 
from that height without a fall. But I mistook the 
man. The difference between him and many other 
orators was, that he was always a thinking man. His 
loftiest efforts never took him where he was not sus- 
tained by " the power of thought — the magic of the 
mind." He therefore ventured to no height where he 
would lose his head. Thought was, indeed, a dis- 
tinguishing characteristic of his oratory on all occa- 



42 

sions, great or small. It came from his mind to yours 
like a powerful current from a galvanic battery, and 
left the impression of there ever being more of it in re- 
serve. Even in the little speeches he made from rail- 
road cars to the people, none of them perhaps t' 
minutes long, there was usually a striking thought, 
which many of his hearers stored in memory. Hut 
it is not my wish to drift into an essay on Gen- 
eral Garfield as an orator. I used the Painesville 
speech for a double purpose — to illustrate his power as 
an orator, and to introduce an anecdote which, I think, 
will interest the friends here present. 

Immediately after reading that speech I yielded to 
the impulse of the moment, and wrote a letter to Mrs. 
Garfield, in which I said that if. she did not stop 1 l 
husband's making such speeches as that, it would 
make Republicans wish that he might be defeated lor 
the Presidency, where his mouth would be i I, and 

go to the Senate, where his eloquence would continue 
to be heard by the country. I really did not expect 
the good lady to answer the letter, but after the la] 
of some time there came from her the note I shall 
now read, and which, I am sure, all present will be 
glad to hear : 

" Mentor, Ohio, July /«s\ / S 

"My Dear Judge: Your letter, so complimentary 
to General Garfield, was duly received, and a thankful 
response flew away to you, but since it only went upon 



43 

the wings of the wind, I will now fasten it down to a 
more substantial vehicle, with a hope that you may 
have forgotten how long ago you wrote to me. 

" The world is getting ahead of me all the while, 
now-a-days, but the tortoise's gait may yet bring me 
up. 

" General Garfield joins me in thanks to you and 
very kind regards. 

" Cordially your friend, 

"LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD. 
" Hon. C. D. Drake." 

All who hear me can understand how highly 
I would esteem such a letter from such a lady as Mrs. 
Garfield ; but the dreadful event which has darkened 
her days has given this note a tenfold value to me ; 
for that event has disclosed to the world that she is 
more, far more, than the world had known, or indeed 
supposed. 

Friends, have you ever dwelt upon the thought how 
seldom in the history of the world a great man has had 
a great woman for his wife ? This country is no ex- 
ception to the general proposition. When, therefore, 
a great man appears on the stage of public action, and 
at his side stands a great woman as his wife, it is a cir- 
cumstance to be noted as glorifying at once his career, 
her sex, and their country. Such a woman, in my 
opinion, came with James A. Garfield from the modest 
walk of life, where they joined their lives together, 



44 

to the high position of a Representative in Con- 
gress, and thence to the most exalted station which 
this nation can bestow on one of its citizens. Ia>ng 
before he was nominated for the Presidency I bad 
observed in her the refined repose of manner, the 
self-possessed dignity of deportment, the gentle tone of 
voice, the frank but undemonstrative graciousne 
which was observed equally by all who enjoyed lier 
society; but what drew my observation mi ire closely 
was the intelligent, steady, sincere eye, telling bettor 
than w r ords the earnest, pure, and brave spirit within, 
and appealing to the best in every one around h< 
But though I observed all this, I did not then see that 
under it all w-as the mind and soul of a great woman. 
Now r , to this mourning nation, through the fire of her 
unspeakable affliction, is revealed what .she really was; 
and the American people — yes, the people of all the 
civilized world — see in her a woman who, beginning 
life in humble circumstances, rose with her husband 
hand in hand, step by step, from height to height, up 
to the supreme station in which she became, officially, 
the representative woman of a nation, of more th.ui 
fifty million people ; and from first to last, at every 
step, was found equal to every demand of her every 
position, and, at last, most equal when strained the 
most. To be and to do all this, in my view, entitles 
her to be recorded in history as a great woman. 
Henceforth let American women point with pride 
her as a great wife of a great American. 



45 

The Vice-President then announced Dr. Charles W. Hoffman, Vice- 
President of the Society during the first year of General Garfield's Presi- 
dency, as the next speaker. 

REMARKS OF DR. HOFFMAN. 

I propose, Mr Chairman, to speak this evening of 
but one of the prominent qualities of the literary 
character of General Garfield. 

He was so often at the Law Library that I never 
secured his autograph in my book kept for the pur- 
pose. He was there at home, and it did not occur to 
me to register names of the members of the household 
with those of visitors. His investigations, however, 
were generally rather in the line of questions relating 
to political economy and the history and philosophy of 
law. Of course, he conducted cases in the Supreme 
Court, but his legislative duties did not allow him 
much leisure to attend to the work of the forum. 

But I was often impressed with his great devotion to 
and accomplishment in classical literature. One of the 
most notable occasions of his expression of this talent 
is, perhaps, bright in the memory of many here present. 
It was at a meeting of the Literary Society, at his own 
house, when the evening's entertainment included a 
paper from that fine scholar, Dr. C. C. Cox, on the 
Latin hymns of the church. After remarks from 
others, the General said he had always had an 
especial admiration for the Latin language, which 
having been the outgrowth of a nation of warriors, 
rude, rough, and unused to the polish of the arts, was 



46 

first thought to be as harsh, unwieldy, and incapable 
of modulation as the civilization under which it was 
developed. But in later times it showed a power of 
adaptation, that had made it a fitting vehicle tor the 
expression of every human thought, and it had thus 
become the language of the learned world. In its 
progress to this eminence it had first exhibited its flexi- 
bility and harmony in the poetry of the Augustan age ; 
next, its precision and conciseness in the codes oi law ; 
and, thirdly, its force and depth of feeling in the t 
pression of the emotions of religion. In the latter 
capacity, he said, it nowhere shone more conspicuously 
than in the Ivynius of the church ; such .splendid com- 
positions as the Dies Jr«\ the Stabat MaUr K and the 
Vent, Sanctc Spiritus having been the delight of the 
learned and pious in all subsequent a] lid having 

exercised the talents of the most eminent musical com- 
posers and of innumerable translators in every lan- 
guage. He had always especially delighted in them, 
and one composition, though of much later date, yet 
written in the same style, had been such a favorite with 
him that he begged permission to repeat it. He then 
recited the well-known prayer of Mary, Queen oi 
Scots, O Domine Deus, after which he closed his I 
marks with an animated apostrophe to the spirit of 
poetry, in its power to gild and soften the rough wa 
of life and illumine even the dark paths of the blind; 
and then turning to Dr. Gallandet, he asked if the 
deaf-mutes ever wrote poetry. The result of that 



47 

question was the paper on that subject, afterwards read 
by the Doctor before the Society. 

After the literary exercises had ended, I said to him 
I was very glad to notice his continued fondness for the 
classics, and his vivid memory of them. He replied 
he had not seen the lines he had repeated for twenty 
years. I then remarked I feared that, like most men 
with such superior acquirements, they would give him 
so much else to do that he would hud no leisure to 
transmit the same culture to his children. He an- 
swered that in that regard he was exceptionally 
fortunate, as, to use his own words, " when I kept 
school I taught my wife Latin, and now she teaches 
the boys. Go and ask Mrs. Garfield about it, and she 
will show you the lesson they have had in Caesar to- 
day." 

I have learned from an authentic source an anec- 
dote which forcibly illustrates his love for classical 
learning. When Mr. Evarts was about to start for 
Europe, as a member of the Monetary Commission, 
he asked the President if he could not bring him back 
some memento of his journey. General Garfield re- 
plied that perhaps in his travels he might find some 
rare or interesting book, which would be a most 
acceptable token of remembrance. In Paris, Mr. 
Evarts happened to come across a fine edition of 
Horace, which, knowing the President's tastes, he 
secured and sent to him. It chanced to arrive at the 
White House when the General lay in the last dark 



4 8 

days of danger and distress. In some brighter in- 
terval during his long ordeal of pain and weakness, it 
was thought well to try and interest him in whatever 
might best serve to divert his attention from his sad 
condition. The book was brought to him, and opening 
at random, he read a passage and attempted a trans- 
lation. It was but a feeble effort, but it showed lmu 
"even in our ashes glow our wonted tires." 
thoughts, as we know, in those last sorrowful moments 
were turning towards his home, the home of his youth 
in those early golden days, when lie first made his 
acquaintance with the classics, days which to all form 
the brightest spot in memory's waste. 

" Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." 

In his researches among the Latin poets, he DO 
doubt, in common with all scholars, often dwelt with 
delight on that splendid passage in the Tenth Satire of 
Juvenal, where the career of Hannibal is drawn in 
such vivid colors, and his last dire fate is delineated 
as the exemplar of too many of the world's illustrious 
men in all ages. But it was not the destiny of our 
President to add another to the long list of such e 
amples. Not in adversity and defeat, not in obscurity 
or dishonor, did he pass away, but in the zenith of his 
fame, with the accomplishment of all that makes 1: 
valuable or noble, we are called to see 

"A final triumph, and a closing scene, 
Where gazing nations watch the hero's mien, 
As undismayed, amidst the tears of all, 
He folds his mantle, regally to fall." 



49 

At the conclusion of Dr. Hoffman's remarks, the Vice-President intro- 
duced President James C. Welling, the first President of the Society, who 
spoke as follows : 

REMARKS OF PRESIDENT WELLING. 

My knowledge of Geri. Garfield's devotion to 
classical learning, from being general became special 
and personal about two years ago, when, through a 
friend, (I believe it was President Gallaudet,) he made 
application to the principal of our Preparatory School 
for a teacher competent to give advanced instruction 
in Greek and Latin to his two sons, who were pre- 
paring for college. This application was referred to 
Professor Montague, Adjunct Professor of the Latin 
language and literature in the Columbian College. 

On entering upon his duties as private tutor, Prof. 
Montague found that, under the guidance and instruc- 
tion of their accomplished mother, the Garfield boys 
had been thoroughly initiated, not only in the elements, 
but in the structure, syntax, and prosody of the Latin 
tongue. At the time when he was called to assist in 
their classical education they were already reading, 
and reading intelligently, in the Metamorphoses of 
Ovid, insomuch that it only remained for Prof. Mon- 
tague to carry on and to supplement the Latin instruc- 
tions of their mother, and to add to those instructions 
some special disciplines in the Greek language and 
literature. 

I am able to attest, from frequent conversations with 
Prof. Montague, that he found a great delight in the 



5o 

office of private instructor to the Garfield boys, because 
of the intelligence and scholarly sympathy with which 
his instructions were sustained by the father as well as 
the mother. General Garfield kept himself constantly 
advised of the studies which his sons were- pursuin 
and closely followed their progress from day to day in 
every Latin or Greek author whom they were reading. 
His familiarity with both of these languages made this 
supervision of their studies an easy task — I should 
rather say, a pleasure — to which he brought the affec- 
tion of a father combined with the enthusiasm of the 
classical scholar. 

He showed this enthusiasm by the genuine love in 
which he held the choicest among the classical writers, 
a love which embraced in its scope all the refinements 
of classical editorship as brought to bear on the form in 
which his choicest authors had been published. Re- 
cognizing with Milton that "a good book is the 
precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and 
treasured up on purpose to a life beyond lii lie 
deemed nothing unimportant which related t<> the form 
or the substance of his favorite authors in the Greek 
and the Latin tongues. Slienstone was not fonder of 
the flowers which adorned the parterres of his garden 
than Garfield of the good books, in good editions, 
which adorned the shelves of his library. 

For ten years after his entrance in Conj r he 
made it a habit to read some Greek and Latin « 
day before he went from his home to the Capitol. And 



5 1 

his readings in the classics were not inspired by the 
dilettantism of the pedant or by the ambition of the 
rhetorician. It was not to garnish his speeches with 
scraps of Greek and Latin lore, stolen from a " feast of 
languages," that he pored by day and by night over the 
great writers of antiquity. It was for their instruction 
as well as for their literary discipline that he familiar- 
ized himself with their contents, and, that he might 
miss nothing of their contents, he studied them dili- 
gently in their original forms. General Garfield saw 
that education, in the true and full sense of that word, 
consists in so training our faculties and in so 
widening the range of our knowledge, that the mind 
of the individual shall be brought into organic rela- 
tion and conscious correspondence with the best minds 
of the whole human race. And hence it is that the 
thoughts and feelings of the living age pulsed through 
his heart and brain with a momentum which took force 
and direction from all that is wisest and best in the 
collective mind of man. And hence, too, it is that 
among all his contemporaries in public life he became 
the best exemplar of " the scholar in politics," and 
knew how not only to speak well but to act well for 
the Republic. 



The Vice-President announced as the closing exercise of the evening 
a poem by Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was then read by the 
author. 



52 



MRS. BURNETT'S POK.M. 



BY THE SEA— SEPTEMBER iy, 1881. 



Watchman! What of the night ? 

'* The sky is dark, my friend ; 

And we, in heavy grief, await the end. 

A light is burning in a silent room, 

But we, — we have no light in all the gloom." 

Watchman ! What of the night ? 

" Friend, strong men watch the light 
With the strange mist of tears before their sight, 
And women, at each hearthstone, sob and prav 
That the great darkness end at last in 

Watchman ! How goes the night ? 

" Wearily, friend, for him ; 

Yet his heart quails not, though the light burns dim. 

As bravely as he fought the field of Life 

He bears himself in this the final stri: 

Watchman! What of the night ? 

" Friend, we are left no word 

To tell of all the bitter sorrow stirred 

In our sad souls. We stand and rail at Fate 

Who leaves hands empty and hearts desolate. 

' Are pure, great souls so many in the land, 

That we should lose the chosen of the band .' * 

We cry ; but he who suffers lies 

Meeting sharp-weaponed pain with steadfast eye . 

And makes no plaint, while on the threshold Death 

Halt draws his keen sword from its glittering sheath, 

And looking inward, pauses — lingering long 

Faltering — himself the weak before the strong." 

Watchman ! How goes the night ? 

" In tears, my friend, and praise 

Of his high truth and generous trusting v\ 



53 

Of his warm love and buoyant hope and faith, 
Which passed life's fires free from all blight or scath. 
Strange ! We forget the laurel wreath we gave, 
And only love him standing near his grave." 

Watchman ! What of the night ? 

" Friend, when it is past, 

We wonder what our grief can bring at last 

To lay upon his broad, true, tender breast, 

What flower, whose sweetness will outlast the rest; 

And this we set from all the bloom apart, — 

He woke new faith and love in every heart." 

Watchman! What of the night ! 

" Would God that it were gone, 

And we could see once more the rising dawn. 

The darkness deeper grows— the light burns low, 

There sweeps o'er land and sea a cry of woe." 

Watchman ! What now ? What now ? 
" Hush, friend ! We may not say, 
Only that all the pain has passed away." 



The Literary Society of Washington 
1882 

/ 'resiJcnt 
Edward Miner Gallaudel 

/ Resident 
( rarrick M 

Secret 1 
Theodore Frelinghuyscn D wight 

Executive Committee 

Elizabeth Bryant [ohnston 
Jean M. Davenport Lander 
Samuel Haj s Kauffmann 
Theodore Frelingl: D ^ht 

Joseph Meredith Toner 

Honorary Associates 

Lucretia Rudolph Garfield 
Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren 
Mary Bucklin Claflin 
James Clarke Welling 
Alexander Graham Bell 
Edward Clark 
Clare Hanson Mohun 



Members 

Benjamin Alvord 
Eliphalet Frazer Andrews 
Frances Hodgson Burnett 
Louise Keller Camp 
Issac Edwards Clarke 
Mary Clemmer 
Ann M. Crittenden Coleman 
Herbert Pelham Curtis 
Anna Laurens Dawes 
Ella Loraine Dorsey 
Charles Daniel Drake 
Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight 
Cornelia Adele Fassett 
Stephen Johnson Field 
Edward Miner Gallaudet 
Randall Lee Gibson 
Theodore Nicholas Gill 
Joseph Roswell Hawley 
Charles William Hoffman 
Annie Bell Irish 
Elizabeth Bryant Johnston 
Samuel Hays Kauffmann 
George Kennan 
Caroline Elizabeth Knox 
|ean M. Davenport Lander 
Jeanie T. Gould Lincoln 
Elizabeth Walker Long 
Garrick Mallery 
Edmund Clarence Messer 
Lida Miller 

Eleazar Hutchinson Miller 
Imogene Robinson Morrell 
Martin Ferdinand Morris 
John George Nicolay 
Charles Nordhoff 
Almon Ferdinand Rockwell 
Ainsworth Rand Spofford 
Rebecca Ruter Springer 
Joseph Meredith Toner 
Henry Ulke 



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